Upon Felina's arrival, and question, he waved his translucent fingers gently in a greeting. "Oh, my beasts have escaped, and I need food for them, and tools, or I shall never know who to reward! I think the others have already begun to go to seek crystals, too, for my needs? If you can bring back any of my ptarmigan, or the white hares, or the caribou; or if you can bring back crystals, or tools, or food for my beasts, I would thank you greatly."


"What?!" Felina was incredulous! "Chaos is everywhere! All you can talk about are your *needs*? If you know how to bring things back to normal, I'll help you. Other than that, I'm going to look for some shelter!"

She followed the smaller group. Of course, she didn't know what they were about to do. She thought that if she would join them, if they agree, their direction might lead to safety.

@Game Master Dark

((Exit Felina.))

Naskital looked completely taken aback by this, and tried to call out to the cat. "Ch-... Chaos? More than--wait, what happened? What is happ-..."

But he fell hopelessly silent; the cat had already run off.

What did she mean..? What was going on? Perhaps all wasn't as it seemed? Perhaps it wasn't... as it should be?

'cause i'm the big bad wolf

now let the games begin

Dezba slowly came too. Everything was.. blue, and very, very cold, colder than Pisces . She blinked, groggy and numb. It was a haze, but she remembered something falling from the ceiling, right on top her.

Am.. am I dead? If so, the afterlife was pretty shitty. She could barely move at all! I can hardly breathe! Her lungs felt confined. All at once, Dezba realized he she wasn't dead (too her relief) because the dead don't breathe, but (to her horror) she was trapped under packed ice. Dezba began to hyperventilate. No-no-no-no-no-no!!! She struggled frantically against the weight of the snow, gasping for breath and panicking . I can't die like this! I can't die like this! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!Fear gripped her like ice, and her gem sparked painfully. Suddenly, something shot into her belly. Dezba let out a muffled yelp that could be heard from within the snow.

All seemed normal on the surface. The other gembounds helped Naskital with his sleigh, blissfully unaware of something big pushing up from under the snow. Then, a sylvan beast rising from the ocean, an evergreen burst from the snow, with a terrified black wolf clinging to its peak, her eyes as wide as geodes. She look at out at the scene before here, now appearing more confused and angry than frightened."WHA--WHAT THE FUCK?!" She screamed from on high. Suddenly, the tree began to rot beneath her, and the she-wolf fell through the crumbling branches with yowl. The evergreen crumpled on top of her, in a heap of rotten wood.

After a while, she dug her way out and shook the snow and leaves from her ruffled coat. She stumbled around, her utterly confused about the snow and the stranger with the big sleigh, and a bit dizzy.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

Naskital stared.

For a long while, he was silent, eyes wide, body still. Then, at last, he spoke.

"...Are you okay?"

The black bird-dog trekked back into Pisces with an air that suggested that he was familiar with its caves. He held, tucked carefully beneath his wing-arms, bundles of plants: grains and grasses, a few flowers, and so forth.

Quietly he approached Naskital, his eyes wide; he kept turning and staring around him with amazement.

"...Whoa. Hi. You really had an accident..? I heard you needed food for your animals--I don't see any animals but um. I hope they like grass." Quietly he paced forward, laying the bundles of plant matter near the foot of the sleigh.

He then backed up to make room for others, glancing behind him to see if Mercurius was still following.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

Food gathered here!

@Mercurius

Mercurius carefully followed after the crow-dog, ears back warily as moonlit eyes fell upon what he assumed to be Oliver's... er--- friend. He never was one to judge based on appearance, but he could not have imagined a creature such as Naskital in his tales. Depositing his fair share of plants at the sleigh's foot, too, the pale beast shuffled backwards.

"Are you alright?" He asked first, in a friendly and warm tone. There was no wound he could see on the strange, slightly translucent creature, but he may as well have asked. Mercy scanned the strange creature and its leather wrappings once more before nodding to himself. Then, in the least interrogative and aggressive way possible --- with a flicker of his ears and bow of his head --- "what's up in the ceiling? Where did you come from?"

Pride came in oblivious to Mercurius' involvement. He had the children behind him, and was driving before him a small herd of four reindeer--three brown, one white--and a few white ptarmigan. On his back perched a white Arctic Hare, with a blue-green gemstone like eyelashes above and below her left eye.

The stag seemed to be having little trouble herding all the deer, along with his children, who were--in their defense--quite well-behaved.

"Remember, be polite, and if you're offered anything or asked to do anything, be sure to ask me permission, first--..." He blinked, startled, as he recognized Mercurius in the distance, along with a strange black bird-dog-creature. And there; that must be Naskital, translucent, with his tattered garments (for warmth, perhaps?) and the sleigh behind.

"Mercurius..?" he asked, in surprise.

The reindeer clattered forward, returning to Naskital as if relieved--and the ptarmigan with them.

Pride was gathering lessers together in this thread: Link and his kids will get whatever rewards he might be offered.

Arsu was prancing happily along, feeling surprisingly content with the strange company. He was comfortable with his father, of course, and with his brother, but some distant, forgotten instinct was satisfied with the company of the other four deer on top of that. They were a herd, moving together; everything was well.

At times he bounced around, leaping and kicking his heels, play-chasing Azizos; at others he moved more sedately alongside his father, eyes wide as he peered around him. It had been a long journey from Eridanus, and this was his first time in another cave--and the experience was so much fun! He wondered if the Eventide of Mercurius's stories were near here, somewhere--or something like it, anyway.

When he saw his father, he bounced straight into the air and then bounded over.

"Father!" he bleated happily. He moved to lean on him, to nudge his flank, his own tail lashing happily. Then he looked up, in awe, to take in the shattered roof, Naskital, and the sled.

...Whoa.

When he saw that his father'd brought gifts of food, he did his best to "help"--edging over and trying to sprout some of the seed grains into tiny seedlings. It wouldn't make much difference, even if it worked well; as it was it barely worked at all, and the sprouts cropped up as only the tiniest little points in the seeds.

It was the thought that counted, though, right?

@Azizos

VINNIE THE VOICE

Vinnie soared in easily, white underparts flashing as his black wing-backs lifted. He held a crystal in his beak, and another in his webbed claws, if clumsily.

Aure was somewhere behind him--unless the kid had gotten lost, but he sure hoped not--and somewhere behind him was that mess of weird hybrids and the black deer who'd gotten herself stuck in a rock. Temporarily, of course. ...And only by the antlers, thankfully.

Vinnie glided down with a few flaps of his broad wings, setting the crystal down by Naskital's feet, then lobbing the other gently forward with his foot.

"There ya go, pal. I hope this helps!" he offered, with a kindly glance upward.

Then he took a few hops back, looking around for Aure behind him. He didn't really care about the rewards, so much, but he liked helping. Hopefully, this was enough help to get the guy back on his feet--so to speak.

As weird as he might look.
________________

Vinnie Helped™ here: Link

@Aure

On the way here, Azizos had similarly been equally boisterous and curious. Every time his other twin would engage in play, the Morning Star was happy to oblige; they'd skitter about for a bit, headbutting one another and chasing after their heels. Of course, the fawn-cub was careful not to frighten or disturb the herd of reindeer away from the family unit. He made sure not to get too close to the caribou and to stay somewhat quiet. Despite that and the rabbit atop Pride's back, Azizos felt comfortable and at home: this was a herd, of course.

Every once in a while, the little one would gaze around the caves in wonder, or he'd scoot further up in the line to try his hand at driving and to make sure none of the deer made off into the unknown. It was cute, to be honest. Fortunately, it was unlikely for the little one to do anything to intimidate or spook the herd, given his entire skill set revolved around little pulses of magic. Or... maybe that would scare them? He hadn't tried it and wouldn't.

But, yeah, well-behaved. Well-behaved up until he heard Arsu call out. Having not yet seen Mercurius, Azizos craned his neck up to their antlered father with a tilt of his head. When Pride definitely said the lion's name, though, the Morning Star whirled around and then spotted his maned father.

Off he went with a kick of his hind legs; the fawn-cub equivalent of a guinea pig's pop-corning. Scampering up to Mercy, unheeding of the plant offerings, Azizos offered many licks and nuzzles and headbutts. To the naked eye, it'd definitely seem like the little one hadn't seen his father in years and not in a few days.

Attention span like the wings of a hummingbird, the fawn-cub's gaze abruptly whirled around and fell upon the very tall and weird creature. The first thing he noticed was --- "antlers! Are you a deer?" Naskital most certainly wasn't, but it didn't hurt to ask!